I've been away for a few days and it looks like I got back right in time. I'll read all the posts I've missed and check in tomorrow afternoon before I take my turn.
Edit: Well, it seems like I missed a turn. I want to apologize to everyone for not being able to inform you all that I couldn't be here for a few days. Hopefully that won't happen again, but I am a truck driver (thus the 'chicken hauler' thing by my name) and occasionally I am in parts of the country where I do not have access to wifi. This is very rare though. I apologize in advance if it happens again, but really it only does every couple of months. I will be stuck in a motel room from Monday to Wednesday next week while I get truck upgrades/repairs. I am fairly sure they have internet access there (most chain motels like Best Western do these days, don't they?), but it is possible they don't.
Ok, on with the game. After reading back I had a fairly good grasp of what people are thinking, so I went ahead with my turns. However, I stopped at the end of turn 8 to discuss a couple of things with everyone.
Things aren't going particularly to my liking. I will go ahead and post my log for the 8 turns and then ask the question that needs to be asked after that.
After looking over the situation, I decided all was in order and went on to my first turn.
IBT: Greeks build Colossus, begin build on Mausoleum. The order of wealth in the world, from greatest to least, is as follows: Japan, USA, Vikings, English, Romans, Greeks, Chinese.
TURN 1: Began work on the tunnel. Trenton and Resiopolis build Cats and get set to build more. I considered building rax in both, but the two cities with them already could be pushing out archers while the smaller ones built cats, so I stuck with that. Cats and archers built will be sent to Maui for some R&R before the hard work to come. We chit chat with China and Greece but nothing comes of it.
TURN 2: WA build granary, then starts producing archers. The local citizens have been tasked with bringing in as much food and gold as possible for the upcoming conflagration. Philly builds a cat and switchers to worker. We plan to send 3 workers (once they are done with their present tasks) to build a road through the mountains to the gems in the southern end of our lands. Once there, they will colonize. Other Workers are irrigating plains near Morristown(?) and a couple of other places, but other than that, all seems peaceful. We speak to the Chinese and swap world maps. We discover that the Chinese have built a town on the island east of Maui and also crossed the water and built a settlement on the continent east of Washington. We decide to see if Greece has done the same. They want 12 gold on top of swapping world maps, so we haggle a little and bring them down to 10. Unfortunately, there isn't much to show from the deal. The Greeks haven't left the continent yet.
TURN 3: At the beginning of the turn we discover, to our surprise, that we have contacts with both England and Rome. The Chinese and/or Greeks must have sold contact with us for gold and/or techs. Indeed, we find they have. Suddenly, we are behind in tech significantly. Construction has dropped to 5 turns until discovery. The Chinese and Greeks don't seem all that much better, but the Romans and English have several techs that we don't. They also have contact with the Japanese, for which they will not trade under any circumstances. We also cannot buy world maps from them either. We are forced to trade our World Map for the English Territory Map AND we have to toss in 28 gold (after haggle). The Romans charge 32 for the same deal. Nobody will sell any techs, any world maps, or communication with Japan at any cost. Stingy folks, I say.
Turn 4: Earlier, we had sent a warrior into the mountains south of Philly to deal with a barb camp. He attacks it now, taking it in a hard fought battle. The warrior becomes elite.
Either this turn or the next one, I can't recall, the workers finish the tunnel and head over to Maui to connect the dyes. Other workers are roading the forests near Newark, and a couple are still irrigating and roading near Mo town.
Turn 5: Workers begin connecting dyes. Other workers busy building a tunnel to gems. Other than workers doing their jobs, everything seems peaceful.
Turn 6: Same as turn 5
IBT: Japan builds TOA. Greece and China have signed a military alliance against Rome. Before we begin turn 7, we discover that all other civs Have 4 more techs than we do: Map Making, HB Riding, Polytheism, and Construction, except China, which lacks Construction and one other I think.
Turn 7: Barb camp NW of Newark discovered. Archers from Maui and Newark take out a roaming barb and the camp. One of them is redlined, the other becomes elite. We discover, now that we are 1 turn from Construction and research has been dropped so we make 19 gold this turn, that we can buy contact with the Japs for 107 gold, 3 GPT, and our world map. We decide this is just too large a price. If the japs have built TOA already, it is likely they have all the techs the other civs do, and we'd be no better off than before. We turn down the deal, for the moment. If we are broke, we can't build embassies to sign alliances that may produce tech in the process. We decide that once we decide what to research after Construction, we'll re-evaluate.
IBT: Rome is building Great Wall and the English are building the Great Lighthouse.
Turn 8: Set research to Republic in 24 turns at -3 gold per turn. We have 126 gold in the treasury. Washington is at pop 7, 2 from pop 8. Workers finished connecting dyes. The move west to mine the BG west of Maui. I shouldn't have sent all three to do it. My mistake. Sorry. I stop playing and save my game.
Basically I want to ask a couple of questions. I just went back and and chatted with each civ and we have 1 trade available. We can sell Construction to the Chinese for HB Riding and Poly (or was it MM sheesh, I'm tired. It's 5 AM here) and some coin. How much I don't know. They want a little more thrown in than just the tech. I am thinking perhaps 20 will do it, but some times when they say that, I can incrementally increase forever, it seems, before they accept. I was thinking a ceiling of 50 gold seemed good for a deal.
As far as the next tech researched, I am thinking Republic, but sometimes under these circumstances, I will go Literature and prebuild for the GL. What do you all think? Monarchy, maybe? Go for the army support? With a war coming soon, it seems to me to be a pretty important decision.
Ok, I'm beat. Had a rough day. There may be some minor errors in my log. I short handed some things but didn't want to get all specific. I don't have all that much time. Odd that this post got so long then, eh?
Anyhow, when I get up I'll have a look at what you all have to say. I'll then finish my turn and hand off the save and get back on the road for another day.
Once again, sorry for missing my turn without notice. I didn't anticipate it.
-Ghostwind
Edit again: Ok, I am so tired I can't sleep. Strange thing. I decided to go back and just do the deal with the Chinese so things would be a bit clearer. We got HB Riding and MM for Construction, 30 gold, and our world map. I'm gonna hit the sack.....